Actress Backs Products Made with Minimal Processing
from The Associated Press via the Orlando Sentinel
Julianne Moore is the latest celebrity to go green in public. Moore is working with Burt's Bees to draw attention to a new label handed out by a trade group, the Natural Products Association, to certify personal-care products as "natural" if they are made from 95 percent natural ingredients with minimal processing. More

Beauty Products: The Dirty Dozen

Now we’re really getting personal. We’re focused on your private place — the bathroom. That’s generally where you use all that soap, body wash, shampoo and lotion. More

Limiting School Snacks Boosts Fruit, Veggie Consumption

Restricting the availability of unhealthy snacks in elementary schools led to a small increase in fruit and vegetable consumption among fifth-graders, a new study found. The roughly 3 percent increase in fruit and vegetable intake among those children in schools that restricted the availability of snacks was still significant. More

Fragrance Issues: Defining "Natural"

As the first personal care products bearing the Natural Products Association’s seal hit store shelves, an assessment of “natural” fragrances in personal care. Considering the elasticity of the term in recent years, defining natural can be a complex task, especially in fragrance and personal care. More

FDA Reform Likely to Take Back Seat in Obama Plan

After years of food poisoning episodes, tainted imports and unrealized promises of reform, the incoming Obama administration has been saying the embattled Food and Drug Administration would finally get what it needed to make the nation's food supply safer. But now, some of the leading champions of rebuilding the FDA and the food safety system acknowledge that big reforms are likely still years away. More

Sneak Peek 2009: Food Markets

The coming year holds particular promise for the food market industry, as hard-pressed consumers are limiting restaurant dining in favor of preparing more meals at home. That means more shoppers are hitting grocery store aisles in search of the lowest prices and easy meal options industry, while Morgan Stanley's Mark Wiltamuth is in the bearish category. More

Study: Out-of-Stocks Cost Retailers Sales from 20 Percent of Consumers

To add fuel to the fire of an already poor economy, retailers are losing sales of at least one item to as many as 20 percent of consumers visiting their stores, according to a recently released research study from IHL Group. This circumstance leads many consumers to stop shopping that retailer entirely, the firm noted. "Retailers remain in denial when it comes to consumers' perceptions of out-of-stocks," observed IHL President Greg Buzek. "Consumers don't care why the product is not available." More

Food Labeling Has a Busy, Controversial Year

The chicken at the grocery store might be labeled "naturally raised." The crackers might say "no GMOs" were used. The tomato could have a little green-and-white sticker that says "USDA Organic." The salmon might say "Wild Caught. Product of China." The shelves and bins of our grocery stores are stocked with products labeled with such claims. And this year, labels got even more complicated. Or not — depending on how you look at it. More

It's Good to Be a Grocer

The grocery-store industry is enjoying robust sales growth as a tough economy has prompted people to eat out less often. According to North Carolina-based marketing research firm Sageworks Inc., privately held grocery store sales were up 5.7 percent in 2007 and are up 7.9 percent in 2008, while privately held restaurant sales were up 4 percent in 2007 and 2.2 percent in 2008. More

Will FDA Relax Its Warnings on Seafood?

Recent news reports about a Food and Drug Administration report have environmentalists and public health officials worried that the agency wants to relax warnings about eating mercury-contaminated fish. A leaked draft report, obtained by the Washington Post, suggests that the benefits of eating fish may outweigh the risks of ingesting mercury even for pregnant women and children. More

BASF Announces Vitamin Plant Closure

High raw material costs are being blamed by material supplier BASF for the closure of one of the group’s Us-based vitamin manufacturing sites in North Carolina. About 33 jobs will be lost as part of the plans that will see the site in Wilmington, N.C., which supplies formulated vitamin C and B products for dietary supplements, closed by 31 March 2009. More